The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts is pleased to announce two recipients of VCCA’s Steven Petrow and Julie Petrow-Cohen LGBTQ+ Fellowship this fall: Javier Fuentes and Divine Byrd. Both are first-time VCCA Fellows at work on novels that aim to reverse queer erasure.
The fellowship recognizes and supports outstanding LGBTQ+ writers, providing them with time and space to pursue their creative projects within the supportive community of VCCA’s renowned artist residency program at Mt. San Angelo in Amherst, Va.
With more than 175 applicants to the 2026 award and so many deserving writers, VCCA Board member and award funder Steven Petrow felt compelled to sponsor a second fellowship this year. That means, Mt. San Angelo will be home to two Petrow Family Fellows over the course of VCCA’s current fall residency season, spanning September through December.
“At a time when LGBTQ+ people are under attack, I appreciated that VCCA had an unprecedented number of applicants for our family’s fellowship, and that these two outstanding writers could benefit from the magical gifts of the Mt. San Angelo campus. The act of writing is a form of resistance, and I know my sister Julie, an activist, would have agreed whole heartedly,” said Steven Petrow.
Javier Fuentes is a Spanish American writer whose debut novel, Countries of Origin, won the 2024 PEN/Hemingway Award. His work has appeared in The Columbia Journal, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Extra Extra Magazine, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from Columbia University, Lambda Literary, the Ucross Foundation, and others. Javier has taught at the School of Visual Arts, Columbia University, and Bard College. He is currently the Paris Review Visiting Professor of Literature at the Bard Prison Initiative. Born in Barcelona, he lives in New York
Fuentes completed his VCCA residency in September. Reflecting on his time at Mt. San Angelo, he says:
These past two weeks at VCCA were the kind of nurturing experience I needed to fully inhabit the grueling but ultimately hopeful voice of my protagonist, an architect who is terminally ill and considering ending his life. Surrounded by an extraordinary group of artists with whom I could share my work and learn from theirs, I was reminded that, though writing is a solitary practice, it doesn’t necessarily need to happen in isolation.
Divine Byrd is a writer, editor, and occasional attorney living in Austin with her two daughters. As a Black, queer woman, she writes stories that amplify the experiences of her communities and provide the representation she wishes she had as a teenager. She also contributes to legal reports on human and civil rights, many of which connect to the themes explored in the novel she is currently writing.
Byrd will begin her VCCA residency in December. Looking ahead to the experience, she says:
“I am incredibly honored to receive this fellowship and deeply grateful for the support. I look forward to the time and space it will provide for me to sit with my story and break it open so that I can piece it together with care. I’m particularly grateful for the opportunity to deepen my practice and continue exploring the history and possibilities of Black, queer life in Texas.”
The fellowship is awarded annually and will next be available for VCCA’s Fall 2027 residency season at Mt. San Angelo. Online applications opened October 1, 2026, with a deadline of January 15, 2027.
Steven Petrow and Julie Petrow-Cohen
Steven Petrow and his late sister, Julie Petrow-Cohen, grew up in Forest Hills, New York, coming out to each other in their teens. Steven is an award-winning journalist and book author who is best known for his Washington Post and New York Times essays on aging, health, and civility. He’s the author of multiple books, including Stupid Things I Won’t Do When I Get Old and The Joy You Make. He was the 2024 N.C. Piedmont Laureate.
Julie graduated from New York University and New York Law School, where she was on Law Review. She started her career as a litigator, moving on to a long and rewarding career in the securities industry. Julie used her knowledge of the law as a fierce advocate for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. She volunteered in the legal clinic of New York’s LGBT Center, as a legal advocate for homeless people in New York City, and was highly involved in the fight for marriage equality. Julie, 61, died from metastatic ovarian cancer in June 2023 and was the wife of Maddy Petrow-Cohen and mother to two daughters, Jessie and Caroline.
Established in 2016, the Steven Petrow and Julie Petrow-Cohen LGBTQ+ Fellowship (renamed in 2023) is open to writers in any genre who self-identify as LGBTQ+. This juried fellowship is awarded on a competitive basis, and the selection is made based on the quality of the submitted work. The Petrow Family Fellowship provides a fully-funded, two-week residency at Mt. San Angelo, which includes a private bedroom with private bath, a separate individual studio, and three meals a day in a community of cross-disciplinary artists.
Previous winners include writers Christopher Gonzalez, Jenn Shapland, Thomas Dai, Nicholas Boggs, Carter Sickels, Lydi Conklin, and Cris Beam.
Photo by Frankie Alduino: Julie Petrow-Cohen and Steven Petrow